Long-serving star center Patrice Bergeron also proved a motivating factor with a pre-game team talk.

"Patrice stepped up. He stepped up big time, [saying] it was within us," McAvoy said. "It was exactly what we needed.

"It was an element of [how] growing up, every one of us shared the same dream, we were all a little kid once and we all wanted this. It was an element of saving this moment and not letting it end tonight.

"It was exactly what we needed. He stepped up and when he talks, you listen."

Blues coach Craig Berube conceded his team could have played better but insisted it was not the pressure of potentially clinching their first title that saw St Louis beaten.

"I thought we handled [the pressure] fine," he said.

"They got a five-on-three goal, unlucky when we're trying to clear it and it goes out. I thought it was an even game really, two periods of tight hockey, there was not a lot of room out there.